National Corvette Museum

Yesterday, a gaping sinkhole swallowed up a number of classic cars at the National Corvette museum in Kentucky. In the past, this type of event may have been saved for a science fiction novel or some tall tale passed along through campfire conversations. But now, sink holes seem to be more and more prevalent, a new story popping up every few weeks.

According to museum officials, the Kentucky Corvette sink hole was detected yesterday at 5:45 a.m. when the museum’s motion sensors were alarmed. The sinkhole, which was 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep, devoured eight classic corvettes from the museum. According to museum spokeswoman Katie Frassinelli, “When you go in there, it’s unreal. The hole is so big, it makes the Corvettes look like little Matchbox cars.”

After hours of media speculation and coverage, onlookers and people close to the museum are still in shock that this actually happened. The museum’s sky dome structure and 100 foot vaulted ceilings always gave a sense of invincibility. Adding to the strength and power of the museum was the greatness that it contained, having winning cars from the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 amongst the vast collection. Bharucha, a Long Island Corvette Owners Association director, says of the museum, “There’s a sense of awe and you get a lump in your throat when you walk inside.”

A picture of the 1 millionth corvette

Even though the dome structure and the above mentioned racing cars are still intact, there was a disorienting amount of damage. The showroom floor was chewed and eaten up, along with eight mangled classic cars. Among those victimized vehicles were a 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” that were on loan from General Motors. Other cars included a 1963 Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car and the 1 millionth Corvette ever produced; these were all owned by the museum.

Unfortunately, all of this damage does not bode well for the museum. Sam Murtaugh, a marketing director at Mecum Auctions in Wisconsin, says, “How do you even begin to place a value on the 1 millionth Corvette built? It’s irreplaceable.” Making things worse is the fact that the museum was preparing for their 20th anniversary in August. They had plans to open a 184-acre Motorsports park and already had 5,000 people pre-registered to attend the park’s grand opening. After this tragedy though, these plans have been moved to the back burner.

Today, there is a team of geologists and engineers from Western Kentucky University exploring the sinkhole. For their research, they have adopted the help of remote controlled drones. Of course, all of this only adds further to the madness and science fiction appeal.